A Fresno hairstylist and downtown yoga instructor have been charged in a 12‑count indictment alleging they defrauded a physician out of more than $2.7 million before his death and then attempted to defraud his estate out of an additional amount exceeding $20 million, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
Anthony David Flores, 46, a.k.a. “Anton David,” of Fresno, was arrested last week in Fresno by federal agents. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and is scheduled for a detention hearing on Feb. 10 in the Eastern District of California, according to a Justice Department news release.
His co-defendant, Anna Rene Moore, 39, an actress and former yoga studio owner who currently resides in Monterrey, Mexico, was arrested Tuesday in Houston upon arrival on a flight from Mexico. She made her initial appearance in the Southern District of Texas. Both defendants are expected to appear in Los Angeles federal court in the coming weeks.
Flores and Moore, who ran the Fulton Yoga Collective, are each charged with nearly a dozen charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and engaging in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property.
According to the indictment, beginning in June 2017, Flores and Moore used false promises and representations to befriend the victim — a physician and successful investor worth more than $60 million who suffered from a mental illness and lost the ability to care for himself. Within days of meeting the victim, Flores and Moore moved into the victim’s beachfront Malibu home — rent free — and slowly took control of his life by pretending to be his new “best friends” and caregivers.
In September 2017, after the victim suffered a severe mental breakdown resulting in his arrest and detention in Los Angeles County jail, Flores allegedly fraudulently induced the victim to sign powers of attorney granting Flores control over the victim’s finances.
Flores allegedly represented that he would only use these powers to access the victim’s finances to post bail for release, and that he would immediately rescind them once the victim was free from jail. But after the victim was released from custody, Flores allegedly reneged on this promise and used these powers to open bank accounts in the victim’s name, giving himself and Moore access to the victim’s wealth.
From September 2017 to May 2018, Flores and Moore allegedly diverted the victim’s funds to their own bank accounts, isolated the victim from his family and longtime friends and provided the victim with drugs, including marijuana and LSD.
In the final days of the victim’s life, Flores and Moore allegedly gave the victim LSD, which caused his mental state to severely deteriorate. While the victim was under the influence of LSD, Flores allegedly changed the two-step authentication feature on the victim’s $60-million online brokerage account after previously changing the phone number listed on the account from the victim’s phone number to his own phone number.
Four days before the victim’s death and while the victim was still under the influence of LSD that defendants allegedly had provided to him, Flores then allegedly initiated two $1-million wires from the victim’s brokerage account to accounts that Flores controlled, including Flores’ personal bank account. Flores and Moore then left the victim, who by this time was in mental distress and had evicted them from his home. From a luxury hotel paid with the victim’s funds, Flores and Moore allegedly watched the victim’s deteriorating mental condition on the video cameras installed throughout the Malibu beach house.
In May 2018, the victim died in his Malibu home at the age of 57 years old. Following the victim’s death, Flores and Moore moved back into the victim’s Malibu beachfront home and allegedly withdrew large sums of money from his accounts. They allegedly also concealed information about the victim’s finances from his mother and sister, both of whom resided in Florida. This prompted the victim’s family to file a lawsuit, which uncovered the alleged fraud.
In the ensuing lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, Flores and Moore allegedly violated multiple court orders ordering them to return the funds stolen from the victim. They allegedly attempted to launder the fraudulent proceeds by funneling the money through multiple different accounts to thwart the victim’s estate and court-appointed receiver from recouping the money. The lawsuit was settled with Flores and Moore agreeing to repay the victim’s estate $1 million, which they have so far failed to do.
If convicted on all counts, Flores and Moore would face statutory maximum sentences of 20 years in prison for each fraud count, 20 years on the conspiracy to commit money laundering and laundering of monetary instruments counts, 10 years on transactional money laundering count, and a mandatory two-year prison sentence for the aggravated identity theft count.
The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this matter.
Assistant United States Attorney Andrew M. Roach of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.
This content was originally published here.
